The Gap (Please Keep Reading!)

After evolving, [Ghoul Heart] had undergone a complete transformation in its talent effects.

Talent: [Ghoul Heart] (Purple)

[Description: Mutated after Lead Sickness Toxin devoured three other deadly toxins. Ordinarily, all toxins are concentrated in the heart. When actively activated, they rapidly spread through the body via the blood, transforming the user into a ghoul!]

[In ghoul form, the user's defense, speed, and strength are all increased by 100%, and attacks inflict the "Plague" effect. Pain is reduced by 90%.]

[Plague effect: The victim suffers intense pain throughout their body, while white spots rapidly form on their skin. When the spots spread across the entire body, the victim dies from the poison.]

[Side effect: As the accelerated outbreak of the toxins corrodes the body, lifespan is depleted at a rate of 1 day per minute.]

[Can grow: Inject seven new deadly toxins into the heart, until they have all been fused and devoured. Number of toxins fused and devoured: 0/7]

Compared to the original talent effect, every aspect of it had been enhanced by more than double.

It had also gained an attack effect: Plague!

This Plague effect was basically a stronger, faster version of Lead Sickness Plus!

Hadn't the World Government always claimed that Lead Sickness was contagious?

Now, if Abel wanted, he could spread the toxins far and wide, letting those lofty bigwigs experience the pain Freyvans's people had suffered before they died.

Even more terrifying was that there was currently no cure for Lead Sickness.

After fusing with three deadly toxins, Lead Sickness Toxin had mutated into something even more troublesome.

That meant anyone infected would slowly succumb to death, even if their strong constitution let them hold out for a while.

Unless a way to treat this mutated toxin was found.

Without a doubt, this gave Abel an extremely deadly weapon to use at this point.

Even the side effect, which had originally been frustratingly bad, had been greatly reduced. In ghoul form, it now consumed only one day of his lifespan per minute, making it several times more practical.

Most exciting of all, [Ghoul Heart], now a Purple Talent, could continue to evolve!

Although the growth requirement had become more demanding, going from three new deadly toxins to seven, the improvement suggested that once [Ghoul Heart] evolved to Orange, it would bring another major surprise!

It might even become Abel's first Red-quality talent!

Just thinking about it was enough to get him excited!

After resting from his "resurrection," Abel went back to the forest behind the mountain to test the Plague effect.

As a result, some wild beasts had terrible luck.

They became his test subjects one after another, and soon met their end.

After testing it out, Abel gained firsthand experience of the Plague effect.

First, [attacks inflict the "Plague" effect] meant that without using a weapon, his entire body was filled with poison once he entered [Ghoul form].

But the toxins had to enter a living creature's body to take effect.

In other words, simple contact wasn't enough. He had to touch a wound to infect the target with the Plague.

Or get in a couple of licks.

During the test, a leopard bit him back and soon met its honorable end.

Second, when the same amount of toxin was injected, larger and stronger animals could hold out longer.

But he could speed up the onset by increasing the dose.

Finally, he tried smearing his blood on a short sword, and it inflicted the "Plague" effect just as well. It was even easier to wound an enemy that way than with his bare hands.

The only problem was that once the toxins in his blood left his body—that "warm bed"—they could survive in the open air for only a short time.

That meant he would have to "enchant" his weapon repeatedly during battle.

It was a drawback, but not a serious one.

Overall, Abel was quite satisfied with [Ghoul Heart] after it had been upgraded to Purple quality. At least now he could use it when needed, instead of leaving it forgotten all the time.

In a corner of the training ground, Luo stood alone, chopping at a wooden post with a short sword. Every so often, he cast an envious glance at the center of the field nearby.

Two figures, one large and one small, were engaged in a fierce "battle."

They were Diamante and Abel!

Originally, Abel's sparring partner had been Luo. But after Abel absorbed and assimilated White Yaksha's combat experience and swordsmanship, the novice Luo was no longer a match for him. He couldn't serve as a useful sparring partner at all.

Once Diamante realized this, he simply sent Luo off to practice against the wooden post and continue working on the basics.

Diamante then became Abel's sparring partner.

There was no denying that the pressure was bringing out Abel's potential bit by bit. He made significant progress almost every day.

The only thing was, he didn't dare use [Wooden Sword Toya Lake] during their sparring, for fear of breaking it.

Even so, Luo was falling further and further behind in swordsmanship.

"That's enough. That's it for today's swordsmanship lesson."

"Lao G will take over soon and teach you your physical training."

Diamante seemed to have something to do today. He had only taught for half a day and was already preparing to leave.

That was only natural. Teaching them was just something he did on the side. The family's growth came first.

As he left, Diamante couldn't help thinking, Could a swordsmanship genius like this really exist? He's only had one real fight, yet he's so experienced it feels strange. It's as if he's fought countless battles in a war.

That sense of incongruity had grown even stronger during their sparring just now.

No matter how hard Diamante racked his brains, however, he would never guess the truth.

In the end, he could only let it go and chalk Abel's oddity up to some kind of "talent."

After all, this world was full of people with all kinds of strange and unusual talents. The little bit of abnormality in Abel was nothing.

Soon after Diamante left, Lao G arrived.

So, under the pretense of going to the bathroom, Abel took out the turtle shell disguised as a round shield and strapped it to his back.

He adjusted the weight directly to one hundred kilograms.

After evolving his Gourmet Cells once and training for a while, one hundred kilograms was currently the most effective load for him.

It wasn't that he couldn't increase it further. There was just no need to yet.

Even so, Abel still outperformed Luo, and that was without using the tenfold learning boost from the [Full Stomach] state.

There was no helping it. Having a cheat really made a difference!

By the time all of that day's training was over, Luo left by himself, deeply dejected. Abel could only sigh as he watched him go; he had wanted to invite Luo out for a late-night snack.

He couldn't and wouldn't slow down his training just to spare someone's feelings.

If Luo couldn't handle a gap like this, he might as well give up sooner rather than later.